“A mystery”: If Serbia finds where Marovic is, he will be arrested

Although a former official of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) Svetozar Marovic has been treated for some time in Belgrade, it seems that the Serbian authorities do not know where he is, although it is an open secret that Marovic is being treated at the St. Sava Hospital. Serbian authorities are not familiar with the details of Podgorica Interpol’s warrant issued because of Marovic’s failure to come to Montenegro and serve three years and nine months prison sentence.

Thus, suspicions that former DPS high-ranking official will not serve his prison sentence in Montenegro any time soon are confirmed.

Serbian interior minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said he was not familiar with the status of the warrant.

“I need to check the status of this warrant. In case it exists, the precondition is to find out where Mr Marovic is. I’ll check with court what further proceedings are. There is no dispute that the ministry will work in accordance with the law,” Stefanovic said on Monday.

Earlier, Montenegrin minister of justice Zoran Pazin said that his ministry couldn’t send the extradition request to Serbia for Svetozar and his son Milos Marovic. He said it could only be done once Serbian authorities inform Montenegro of their arrest.

As Pazin explained, the ministry would promptly send extradition request to relevant Serbian authorities once Marovic was arrested.

It is not known why Serbian authorities have not arrested Marovic yet.

The former senior official of the ruling party made two plea bargains with the Special State Prosecutor’s Office (SDT). He admitted being the leader of the so-called Budva criminal group whose frauds in the projects Jaz, TQ Plaza, Copyright, Krapina, VTE, Boulevard and Prijevor cost the state budget tens of millions of euros.

Based on the Podgorica High Court’s decision on accepting the bargains, Marovic is fined to €100,000 and sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. In addition, he is supposed to return about €1m to the state budget.